


On the Train

by TheScholarlyStrumpet (equipoise)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, F/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-30 22:10:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20454347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/equipoise/pseuds/TheScholarlyStrumpet
Summary: Emospritelet posted on tumblr: Gold sits next to Belle and can’t help seeing that she’s writing something incredibly smutty. She’s on her way to an interview and he turns out to be the interviewer.(I can't believe I forgot to post this to AO3!)





	On the Train

Belle swallowed a yawn as her laptop booted up with a familiar whir. She’d been up so late last night reading Ruby’s latest chapter, she hadn’t had a chance to work on her own. Their Nanowrimo group met at 6pm and Belle was supposed to share tonight. She’d mostly finished the chapter but there was some heavy editing needed and frankly after describing both orgasms, her attention had waned a bit. The section needed at least an  _ attempt _ at denouement. 

She could already hear Aurora teasing her about how all her post-coital scenes ended the same. Belle’s mouth twisted. Her friend wasn’t wrong - cuddling was all well and good but a little actual conversation might help set up the next scene. 

The train groaned to a stop and in her peripheral, Belle noted a handful of people getting on. The seat beside her stayed blessedly unoccupied so she opened the file and started typing. 

Her interview was the better part of an hour away but she’d been out of work for nearly two months now and a spot had finally opened up at a publishing company. Her resume wasn’t a perfect match but she had to take the shot. Plus, she figured the commute would be fine as long as she had something to do, like work on her novel. 

This was actually to be the third novel in Belle’s repertoire, the first two having been more high fantasy than erotica, but this one held a special place in her heart (among other parts of her anatomy). She’d been hesitant to bring it into the group initially but Ruby had assured her that they would all be excited to share this journey with her. So far, it had proven true. Everyone had been really supportive in their own way.

Belle had been trying to shop the other two novels for some time and had nothing but a pile of rejection letters atop her desk to show for it. She’d even submitted to the publishing house she was interviewing for today, but that had been almost a year ago and she doubted they remembered her. If she thought about it too much, she just got extra nervous so she put that out of her head entirely and continued to immerse herself in her work. 

_ Armando moved inside her slowly, drawing out her pleasure, his mouth trailing her jaw with hot, biting kisses. Jocelyn arched into him, hips tilting to take him deeper. The hand not supporting his weight smoothed down the length of her body to her thigh, hoisting it higher over his hip.  _

Belle chewed her lower lip, finger poised over the backspace. Was twice in three sentences too many times to say hip? Was there another name for that body part? A sexy name? Butt? Arse? Arse was probably the sexier option but didn’t seem to entirely fit there, anatomically… Maybe she could just take that last bit out… 

She underlined it for further consideration and moved forward. 

_ His name on her lips was a ragged breath, her heels digging in to urge him on. She needed more, harder, faster. His hand slid between them to tease her further, easily finding that sensitive bundle of nerves at the apex of her sex. She huffed her impatience and he chuckled warmly against her throat.  _

Hmmm, apex… sex… too rhymey? She paused again and sighed aloud. Fuck this second guessing. She had no doubt Jefferson would be happy to point that one out if it was jarring. 

_ Finally giving in to her wordless pleading, Armando pulled out nearly to the tip then plunged forward deep and hard, pistoning his hips  _ (agh! another hip!) _ in a driving rhythm. Jocelyn gasped her appreciation, one hand curling into the blankets as the other grasped his arse to hold him fast.  _

Belle shifted slightly in her seat, lifting one thigh and lowering one hand subtly to measure how realistic that position might be. Well, if Jocelyn was flexible and Armando wasn’t very tall… yeah, that would work fine. Her cheeks went hot as she realized how long it had been since she’d had a real-life experience to which she could compare. 

Ok, so blah blah blah …  _ grasped his arse to hold him fast…  _ ‘arse’ was probably the best fit there, right? She just couldn’t imagine typing ‘butt’ with a straight face. God, how old was she?? 

She was just pondering pulling up thesaurus.com on her mobile when the movement of train jostled her into an unexpected shoulder beside hers, her laptop sliding halfway into a stranger’s lap before she quickly pulled it back. An embarrassingly high-pitched squeak escaped her at the collision. 

How had she not even noticed a whole person there? She cringed inwardly at the thought he might have seen her screen. Not so much because she was writing porn in a public place but because it wasn’t finished, dammit! No one should see her work at less than its best unless they were in her writing group. 

A man cleared his throat and low voice murmured, “Beg pardon.” 

“No, no,” Belle stammered, tilting her laptop screen down slightly. “I bumped into you,” she looked up at the face of the stranger beside her with a polite smile. 

He was older than she was, elegantly handsome, with just a hint of silver at the temples of his long brown hair. His expensive suit and gold-tipped cane could have given him an air of stuffiness, but there was a gentle warmth to his eyes that Belle felt herself leaning toward. 

Seriously, how had she not even noticed a hot guy with a cane when he plopped down beside her? Wow, Belle. Good job. This was why there was no real life Armando, right now. Not that her romantic hero could be replicated off the page in his entirety - a dashing anti-hero with a heart of gold and a penchant for snark was not something she’d yet encountered outside of a novel. But a girl could keep hoping. 

The man beside her offered her a bemused look and she realized she’d perhaps been looking at him a tad too long without actually saying anything else. 

“So, um, yeah. My apologies, that is.” Belle felt her cheeks flush. 

He inclined his head, dark eyes still carrying a flicker of amusement. “Accepted.” He opened his mouth again as though to add something then seemed to think the better of it and looked away. 

Belle looked down at her half closed laptop, glance sliding to and from the man at her side. “At least…, uh,” she started to speak and the man looked at her once more, “at least you weren’t carrying a coffee or something. We’d both be in trouble.”

He nodded and hummed his agreement. “At that point we may well have had a lawsuit on our hands….”

Belle’s eyes widened at that leap and she worried if she’d somehow read him all wrong. “I…” 

He held up a hand. “Just teasing, dear. ” A wicked grin somehow made him even handsomer and Belle felt her stomach give a little flip. “You did look a bit like a deer in headlights, there for a moment.”

She laughed sheepishly, feeling young and ridiculous but also very, very warm. “Oh, that’s just my face. I have resting deer face. Family trait.” 

He laughed back at that. “What an inheritance.” A pause as he shifted slightly in his seat, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I wouldn’t lament it much, if I were you. You, ah, wear it well.” 

Belle’s face grew even hotter and she looked down then back up. “Thank you, Mister…?” She extended a hand to shake his. 

Before he could answer, the train came to another stop. This time, Belle was prepared, grabbing the laptop with both hands and planting both feet to steady herself. 

The stranger beside her frowned as he looked at the station sign. “I’m afraid this is my stop today. I’ve an errand to run before work.” He pulled himself to standing, leaning on his cane, as people began loading onto the train car. The man’s free hand fished a card out of one suit pocket and he offered it to her.

“Please, feel free to contact me here. You, ah,” he cleared his throat as his own cheeks seemed to take on some added color, “you show promise as a writer.” 

With that, he was swallowed up by the flow of traffic and Belle was left gaping, his business card hanging limply from her fingertips. She blew out a breath and flipped the card over to examine it. 

> ##  Gold and Mills Publishing
> 
> R.M. Gold, CEO

The same Gold and Mills with whom she had an interview in two hours. The same Gold and Mills who had rejected her last two manuscripts without so much as a personalized letter.

“Well. Fuck me,” Belle muttered, earning a less than pleasant look from the elderly woman who had taken up the seat beside her. 

Today had certainly taken an interesting turn. 


End file.
